Head of the National Congress of Western Armenians: Turkey will not handover to Azerbaijan 4 representatives of the intelligentsia who visited Artsakh

ArmInfo. Turkey will not handover to Azerbaijan 4 representatives of the intelligentsia who visited Artsakh. Aragats Akhoyan, co-chairman of the National Congress of Western Armenians expressed similar confidence in the conversation with the correspondent of ArmInfo, on the initiative of which the representatives of the Turkish intelligentsia visited Armenia and Artsakh, commenting on the statement of Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Erkan Ozoral that within the framework of the legal process against 4 Turkish citizens who visited Artsakh, Ankara will fulfill its obligations at the request of Azerbaijan.

"It is unlikely that Turkey will transfer its citizens to Azerbaijan, as it realizes that it thereby disgraces itself," he said. In addition, Akhoyan stressed that in case of extradition of its citizens in Turkey, a powerful wave of discontent among the representatives of the advanced intelligentsia will rise. "I do not understand the reason for such a sensation, because before the visit to Armenia and the visit to Artsakh Ufuk Uraz, Said Chekinoglu, Ali Bayramoglu and Erol Katyrchyoglu warned the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Turkey about his initiative. The Ambassador did not react to it in any way. This may have several explanations - either silence meant a sign of agreement, or the ambassador did not care, or he deliberately did not react, then to raise the hype from this visit," Akhoyan explained.

At the same time, he assured that Ufuk Uraz, Said Chekinoglu, Ali Bayramoglu and Erol Katyrchyoglu do not regret their visit to Artsakh and do not intend to revise their statements. It should be noted that the Turkish Ambassador in Azerbaijan, referring to Baku's demand for the extradition of 4 citizens of the country who visited Artsakh, said: "We only learned that some Turkish citizens went to Nagorno-Karabakh.  Such illegal visits, of course, harm the settlement process. Turkey strongly condemns actions aimed at torpedoing the settlement process. The persons making this visit do not have the authority to represent Turkey's official position. They went there for personal reasons. Our official position is known to everyone, "the ambassador said. Ozoral also commented on the initiation of criminal cases in Azerbaijan against Turkish citizens who made a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh. He said that this is a legal process, the requirements of which will be fulfilled: "We respect the legal system."

To remind, representatives of the Turkish intelligentsia, members of the political party Green and Left Future, chairman of the public organization "Ankara's Platform of Thinking" Ufuk Uraz, writer and public figure Said Chekinoglu, Ali Bayramoglu, writer and presenter Erol Katyrchyoglu visited Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. This visit caused a painful reaction in Azerbaijan. The Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan initiated a criminal case against the above-mentioned persons and conducts an inspection, moreover, they are declared on the international wanted list by the Interpol line. Turkey does not extradite its citizens to foreign countries at the request of Interpol. holds positions in TOP-5.